Employing Persons with Disabilities

Hiring Persons with Disabilities
Makes Good Business Sense!

1. Get Credit: The Work Opportunity Credit provides eligible employers with a tax credit up to 40 percent of the first $6,000 of first-year wages of a new employee if the employee is part of a “targeted group.” An employee with a disability is one of the targeted groups for the Work Opportunity Credit, provided the appropriate government agencies have certified the employee as disabled. The credit is available to the employer once the employee has worked for at least 120 hours or 90 days. Employers claim the credit on Form 5884, Work Opportunity Credit.

2. Increase employee retention.

Replacing employees is expensive not only in tangible costs (e.g., advertising, screening, interviewing, training) but also in organizational knowledge that is lost. Employers have found their employees with disabilities to be a loyal workforce, reducing turnover. Federal agencies can leverage this to their advantage when recruiting and hiring talent.

The Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) June 2006 Workplace Forecast Survey (PDF) and Organizational Development Special Expertise Panel findings indicate that keeping key talent is one of greatest concerns among employers.
The results of EARN’s focus group (MS Word) with senior executives and human resources professionals demonstrate that one of the greatest challenges employers have is with “retention and turnover”.
Human resource experts (Griffeth and Hom, 2001) estimate the cost of a single turnover ranges from 93-200% of the employee’s annual salary.
The findings of a longitudinal study of 8,500 applicants and recipients of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services, show that people with disabilities who have achieved competitive employment through existing business and VR partnerships have a nearly 85 percent job-retention rate after one year (2003). These findings concur with those of companies such as DuPont and Sears who have measured retention rates of their employees.
As reported by ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership, in an article in Fortune magazine, Pizza Hut stated that their turnover rate for people in their Jobs Plus™ Program was 20% compared to a 150% turnover rate among non-disabled employees for their for people with mental disabilities. Fortune also reported that after Carolina Fine Snacks in Greensboro, NC started hiring people with disabilities, employee turnover dropped from 80% every six months to less than 5%; productivity rose from 70% to 95%; absenteeism dropped from 20% to less than 5%; and tardiness dropped from 30% of staff to zero. Click here for the full article.

3. Hire employees with the skills you need.

Increased education and training opportunities prepare people with disabilities to contribute in your workplace.

According to the Heath Resource Center, over 2.1 million undergraduate and graduate students with disabilities were enrolled full-time at colleges and universities between 2003 and 2004.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 1 in 4 persons over age 50, and 1 in 2 persons over age 65 has a disability. The AARP cites mounting evidence—both anecdotal and statistical—that demonstrates that 50+ workers bring experience, dedication, focus, stability and enhanced knowledge to their work. AARP suggests that in order to retain, attract and engage these workers and take advantage of their skill-sets, organizations will need to offer the right mix of rewards. These rewards include health care benefits, innovative growth and development opportunities, competitive retirement benefits and, perhaps most important, flexible work and part-time employment opportunities.

4. Reduce costs of employee benefits.

Employer experience has shown that an aggressive return to work program increases positive outcomes and reduces costs for an organization. Federal agencies can learn from the experience of private sector employers. Returning an employee to work:

Saves money in lost time, increased insurance costs, replacement and retraining.
A manufacturer accommodated a 28 year old worker returning with a disability at a cost of approximately $6800, compared to $327,000 which might have otherwise been spent in long-term disability payments for this employee alone.
Returns workers to the job rather than losing their expertise to long-term disability.

-The Embassy Suites Hotel (PDF) in Crystal City, VA regards reasonable accommodations as a way to keep valued employees on the job, as well as to hire qualified applicants with disabilities.

Reduces additional disabilities among co-workers through preventive accommodation.

-When the Houston Community College (PDF) instituted training programs for students with disabilities, employees saw the positive approach to disabilities demonstrated. As a result, college employees seek help for disabling conditions requiring accommodation, enabling them to remain on the job safely and productively and saving disability costs for the College.

Needs analysis performed to avoid risks of re-injury for a returning worker often surface hazards to other employees thus doubling the benefit to the organization by both accommodating as well as preventing disability.

See these links for more information:

State Accessibility Code

Florida Department of Community Affairs/Florida Building Commission
Name of Code: Florida Building Code
Codes and Standards
2555 Shumard Oak Boulevard
Tallahassee,FL 32399-2100
850-487-1824 (voice)
Fax: 850-414-8436
http://www.floridabuilding.org/c/default.aspx

The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), conducted the 2008 Survey of Employer Perspectives on the Employment of People with Disabilities.

This survey emphasized current attitudes and practices of employers in 12 industry sectors, including some high growth industries as projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). ODEP was also interested in understanding employer perspectives by company size.

Key findings are:

Employing people with disabilities

Among companies in the United States, 471,562 companies (19.1 percent) report employing people with disabilities.
Among small companies (employing 5 to 14 people), 10.7 percent report employing people with disabilities, while 22.6 percent of medium-sized companies (employing 15 to 249 employees) and 53.1 percent of large companies (employing 250 or more employees) report employing people with disabilities.

Recruiting people with disabilities

326,721 companies (13.6 percent) report that they actively recruit people with disabilities.
Larger companies are more likely to actively recruit people with disabilities (33.8 percent) than smaller companies (7.8 percent).
In absolute numbers, there are more mid-sized companies (164,460) recruiting people with disabilities than small (96,052) and large companies (66,209).
Public administration organizations are more likely to actively recruit than their private sector counterparts.
Among private sector companies, those in service-producing industries are more likely to actively recruit than those in goods-producing industries. Service-producing industries have the largest number of employers that actively recruit.

Persuading companies to recruit people with disabilities

When asked about the type of information that would persuade them to recruit people with a disability, companies that do not actively recruit cited information about performance, productivity, and how hiring people with disabilities can benefit a company’s bottom line as the most persuasive information, while information about cost is the least persuasive.
Information on satisfactory job performance and how hiring people with disabilities can increase a company’s productivity are cited by small and medium-sized company as most persuasive.
Large companies are more likely to be persuaded by i nformation that is supported by statistics or research.

Hiring people with disabilities

215,344 companies (8.7 percent) report having hired people with disabilities in the past 12 months.
Large companies are more likely to report having hired a person with disabilities in the past 12 months (32.6 percent) compared to medium-sized companies at 8 percent.
The nature of the work being such that it cannot be effectively performed by a person with a disability is cited as a hiring challenge by 72.6 percent of all companies. Attitudes of co-workers or supervisors are the least frequently cited challenges. Health care costs, workers compensation costs and fear of litigation are more challenging for small and medium companies than for large companies.
The cost of employing people with disabilities and the belief that workers with disabilities lack the skills and experience necessary are the most often cited concerns for small and mid-sized companies, while supervisor uncertainty about how to take disciplinary action is cited most often for large companies.

Advancing Employees with Disabilities

For companies that currently employ people with disabilities, the cost of accommodation and lack of advancement potential are the top two challenges to advancing employees with disabilities, regardless of company size, far surpassing attitudes of customers, co-workers or supervisors.

Retaining Employees with Disabilities

For companies that currently employ people with disabilities, finding ways to return employees to work after the onset of a disability is the number one challenge for medium and large companies.
For companies that currently employ people with disabilities, visible commitment from top management is an important strategy in retaining people with disabilities. Small and mid-sized companies are more likely to cite employer tax credits as a retention strategy than are large companies. Large companies most often cite mentoring as the top strategy for retention.

Knowledge of One-Stop Career Centers

One-Stop Career Centers are designed to provide a full range of assistance to job seekers and employers in one location. Established under the Workforce Investment Act, the centers offer training referrals, career counseling, job listings, and other employment-related services. Twenty-five percent of employers are aware of local One-Stop Career Centers. Large companies (42.6 percent) and employers in public administration (38.1 percent) are more likely to know of local One-Stop Career Centers. Within the private sector, the proportion of employers in goods-producing industries aware of One-Stop services (25.5 percent) is roughly the same as the proportion of employers in service-producing industries (24.6 percent).

When companies were asked if they used One-Stop services, 15.3 percent said they did. The use of One-Stop services increases with company size: small companies (7 percent), medium-sized companies (14.9 percent), and large companies (43.6 percent). Public administration employers are much more likely to use One-Stop services (41.5 percent) than service-producing and goods-producing employers (14.6 percent and 14.3 percent, respectively).

Job Accommodation Network

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) is a service that provides information on job accommodations, entrepreneurship, and related subjects. The services of JAN are familiar to 7.4 percent of companies. Large companies are much more likely to be familiar with JAN services than are small and medium-sized companies (21.6 percent compared to 6 percent and 5.9 percent, respectively). Public administration employers are more likely to be familiar with JAN (19.2 percent) than are employers in service (7.3 percent) or goods-producing industries (6.2 percent).

Of the 7.4 percent of companies that are familiar with JAN services, 27.7 percent report using the services.

Employer Assistance and Recruiting Network

The Employer Assistance and Recruiting Network (EARN) is a service of ODEP that assists employers in locating and recruiting qualified workers with disabilities and provides technical assistance on disability employment-related issues. Eight percent of employers are familiar with EARN services. Large companies are more likely to be familiar with EARN services than small and medium-sized companies (14.3 percent compared to 6.8 percent and 6 percent, respectively). However, there was no difference among industries types with regard to familiarity with EARN.

Of the 8 percent of companies that are familiar with EARN services, 12.4 percent use the services.

Articles from recent Earnworks Newsletter (found at http://www.earnworks.com/news/newsletters.asp):

Can Autism be an Asset Rather than a Liability?

Companies around the globe have discovered that some traits of high-functioning adults with autism are just the ones they are seeking. One such company in the US is the Chicago-based non-profit Aspiritech which recently launched a pilot program to train testers for software developers. Another is Specialisterne in Denmark, which prepares individuals with autism as hourly consultants to do data entry, assembly work, and other similar jobs many employees may shy away from due to the repetitive nature of the tasks involved.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Olympic Committee

Launch Paralympic to Serve Veterans with Disabilities.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) signed a memorandum of understanding to provide Paralympic sport programming and additional community support, including funding and resources, to injured service members and veterans across the country. “Research shows that sports and physical activity provide incredible healing power and contribute significantly to successful rehabilitation and re-engagement in life for people and soldiers who become physically disabled,” said Charlie Huebner, Chief of Paralympics, USOC.

January 2010 Disability Employment Statistics Released

http://www.dol.gov/odep/index.htm

In January 2010, the percentage of people with disabilities in the labor force was 21.8 compared with 70.1 for persons with no disability. The unemployment rate for those with disabilities was 15.2 percent, compared with 10.4 percent for persons with no disability, not seasonally adjusted.

Table A-6.Employment status of the civilian population by sex, age, and disability status, not seasonally adjusted

HOUSEHOLD DATA
Table A-6. Employment status of the civilian population by sex, age, and disability status, not seasonally adjusted Numbers in thousands
Employment status, sex, and age	Persons with a disability		Persons with no disability
Employment status, sex, and age	Jan. 2009	Jan. 2010	Jan. 2009	Jan. 2010
TOTAL, 16 years and over
Civilian noninstitutional population	26,804	26,952	207,934	209,880
Civilian labor force	6,184	5,877	147,261	147,079
Participation rate	23.1	21.8	70.8	70.1
Employed	5,368	4,987	135,068	131,823
Employment-population ratio	20.0	18.5	65.0	62.8
Unemployed	816	891	12,193	15,257
Unemployment rate	13.2	15.2	8.3	10.4
Not in labor force	20,620	21,075	60,673	62,801

Men, 16 to 64 years
Civilian labor force	2,824	2,666	75,343	74,910
Participation rate	38.5	36.5	83.7	82.6
Employed	2,345	2,208	68,086	65,649
Employment-population ratio	32.0	30.2	75.7	72.4
Unemployed	479	458	7,257	9,261
Unemployment rate	17.0	17.2	9.6	12.4
Not in labor force	4,510	4,642	14,658	15,816

Women, 16 to 64 years
Civilian labor force	2,500	2,366	66,276	66,326
Participation rate	33.0	31.7	71.9	71.4
Employed	2,197	2,029	61,678	60,731
Employment-population ratio	29.0	27.2	66.9	65.4
Unemployed	303	337	4,598	5,594
Unemployment rate	12.1	14.3	6.9	8.4
Not in labor force	5,065	5,102	25,884	26,604

Both sexes, 65 years and over
Civilian labor force	860	846	5,643	5,844
Participation rate	7.2	6.9	21.9	22.3
Employed	826	750	5,304	5,442
Employment-population ratio	6.9	6.2	20.6	20.8
Unemployed	34	95	339	402
Unemployment rate	3.9	11.3	6.0	6.9
Not in labor force	11,044	11,330	20,130	20,381
NOTE: A person with a disability has at least one of the following conditions: is deaf or has serious difficulty hearing; is blind or has serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses; has serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition; has serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs; has difficulty dressing or bathing; or has difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor's office or shopping because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.

SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION LAUNCHES WEBSITE FOR PEOPLE WITH SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY BENEFITS WHO WANT TO RETURN TO WORK
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has launched the Choose Work Website for people receiving Social Security disability benefits who want to return to work. The site contains first-person accounts by people who have used the SSA's work incentives; videos, including a Work Incentive Seminar Event; help finding local resources; and more. For more information go to http://www.choosework.net/

GET HELP IN UNDERSTANDING WORK INCENTIVES
This web site offers a state-by-state list of contacts to help people who receive disability benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and are interested in working or learning more about how working would affect their benefits. The site can be found at https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/oesp/providers.nsf/bystate

GOING TO WORK: A GUIDE TO SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS AND EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES (2009 EDITION)
This booklet from ICI, provides basic information about Social Security disability and health benefit programs, discusses what happens to Social Security disability and health benefits when a young person goes to work, and explains how to maximize a young person's options when he or she goes to work. For more information go to
http://www.communityinclusion.org/article.php?article_id=211

WEBSITE LAUNCHED TO SUPPORT PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN STATE VR AGENCIES AND EMPLOYMENT NETWORKS
The Partnership Plus Online Toolkit is designed to assist State Vocational
Rehabilitation (VR) agencies in taking advantage of the new service delivery option under the NEW Ticket to Work program. Under the new Ticket regulations, the Ticket of a beneficiary whom a State VR agency served under the traditional Cost reimbursment program (available only to VR agencies) still has value after the VR case is closed. As a result, an EN that gets the Ticket assignment after VR closes a Cost Reimbursement case can qualify for Milestone and Outcome payments as the beneficiary attains specific levels of work or earnings. To access the toolkit go to http://partnershipplus.cessi.net/

NEW TARGET GROUP UNDER THE WORKER OPPORTUNITY TAX CREDIT
The Employment and Training Administration has issued a training and employment guidance letter to State Workforce Agencies outlining two new Worker Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) targeted groups, one of which is disconnected youth who begin work for an employer during 2009 or 2010. To view the guidance go to http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/corr_doc.cfm?docn=2800.